


Not Quite Like Romeo and Juliet

by karrenia_rune



Category: Alice In Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
Genre: Gen, Love, Promptfic, betrothals, comm:50scenes, meanings of flowers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-08-10
Updated: 2011-08-10
Packaged: 2017-10-22 11:45:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 690
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/237677
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/karrenia_rune/pseuds/karrenia_rune
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lily stumbles upon a book that explains the victorian meaning of  flowers and begins a tentative exploration; her Nanny is not particularly amused.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Not Quite Like Romeo and Juliet

Title: Not Quite Like Romeo and Juliet  
Fandom: Alice in Wonderland, general book series  
Author: karrenia_rune  
Characters: Lily, OC, her Nanny  
Words: 616  
Rating: General Audiences  
Prompt: #29 elope, Table 1 29/50  
Disclaimer: Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass are the original creations of Lewis Carroll or whomever owns his estate now; the characters are only 'borrowed' for the purposes of the story.

 

"Not Quite Like Romeo and Juliet" by karrenia

Thursday of the previous month; she had received a fresh count flower on her windowsill. At first she had simply assumed that the maid had placed them, but if that was the case then why not place them in vase? Lily puzzled over the matter for a while but paid it no more head in the press of other more urgent concerns.

It would take the elucidation and the experienced eye of her nanny to identify the significance of those flowers. The next batch was a combination a half a dozen lilacs which meant the yet unknown suitor was using them to expression his budding love, as yet unexpressed.  
Her nanny went on at some length, relating an anecdote from when she had been a young women, and which due to a limited attention span of her intended audience, was mostly lost; however Lily garnered that the gist of it was that if the next batch included white lilies, the namesake of her young mistress, then it meant sweetness, humility, returning devotion and happiness

Time passed and without thinking too much of it she went to her windowsill to check if another batch of flowers had been lift. This time the unknown suitor had combined baby’s breath, daffodils and a handful of pansies.

Being of a practical minded sort, when it came to her young charge the nanny immediately placed the newest batch of flowers in a vase filled with water along with the previous ones on the mantel in the living room.

Watching from where Lilly pain-stingingly scribed the letters of her name on a sheet of vellum she looked up as her nanny cut the stems and asked; “Eleanor, who do you suppose sent them?”

“I haven’t the foggiest, my dear,” replied Eleanor. “But there are not that many eligible suitors out there, unless, someone I could as well name is being naughty and sending flowers to one self in order to trick her old nanny.” She said this mainly in jest, playing to the audience as it were. “But if were to hazard a guess, perhaps it is young Mr. Jack of Hearts, or even the White Knight, or he does appear rather too old for you.”

“What does mother think of it all?” Lily asked.

“Ah, I wouldn’t rightly know,” replied Eleanor shaking her head. “What do you think of this, uhm, attention?”

“It’s flattering and at all,” and then Lily paused and bridled a bit her pale-blond almost white hair tousled by the breeze coming in through the open window. “What did you mean when you insinuated that I’d be sending flowers to myself?

“Nothing, I was just teasing you.” Eleanor smiled. “So, don’t take on so.”

“Oh,” Lily blushed, and added. “I’m sorry. As I said, it’s flattering, but does this mean that whoever sent me those flowers is either too shy to come in person, or so over-bold that I’d get the implied message and agree to run away with him, or even it, as the case may be?”

“It?”

“Well, if its say, the March Hare, or say the White Rabbit, then it seems to that the proper pronoun to use in reference to them would be IT,” replied Lily.  
Eleanor was hard-pressed to suppress a giggle. “Yes, then, quite,” she replied. “It’s not quite like those romantic but tragic couples we hear about in stories, is it?”

“No, not really.” Lily perked up a bit and asked, “Eleanor, it does make me curious, does it get easier when you get older?’

“All I can say, my dearest, :Lily, is that the answer is both yes and no, and even then it is up to the people involved.”


End file.
